DJ Raphi’s dance videos talk kids’ language

Raphi Nathan, a young South African-born Israeli, is dominating YouTube with funky dancing and singing videos that have taken young children, particularly those wanting to learn English, by storm.

Nathan, known as DJ Raphi to the world, is the first Israeli content creator to reach one million subscribers on YouTube, and his channel now has more than 600 million views.

“Though we’re probably the most viewed channel in Israel, about 50% of the views are from the United States, then Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa with regards to non-Jewish viewership,” Nathan said. “The videos are used in schools all around the world. After the English-speaking countries, most of our views are from Muslim countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. It’s educational.”

The focus of his YouTube channel and brand is, he says, to empower kids through music and dance and bring people together to make a better world. Nathan is also an acclaimed music producer, DJ, beatboxer, and runs his own entertainment business.

“The first video I uploaded was the Cha Cha Slide, just me dancing to it. Suddenly I started getting videos of kids at home, because it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, dancing to these videos. It started spreading like wildfire,” he said. “People were stuck at home and sad, and I gave them something to get them up and moving. That video has 80 million views.”

His YouTube content-creation career started in 2020 at the peak of COVID-19, when Nathan made the risky move to become a content creator when the pandemic put an abrupt halt to his DJ-ing gigs. In December 2019, DJ Raphi performed at Bnei Akiva Machaneh, only to return to Israel in March to have to shut his business down. His late mother, Naomi Nathan, and his wife encouraged him to start posting his dances and music on YouTube in support of his message of “just wanting to make people happy”.

Nathan attributes his thriving YouTube career to the support of his family, friends, the Jewish community, and previous clients from his DJ-ing days. “Throughout my career, it hasn’t been about me, it’s been about the people that are around me who believe in what I do,” the Israeli YouTube sensation said. “When I started creating the YouTube videos, I had already exposed myself to the world as DJ Raphi.”

Though his career has taken off, his childhood was anything but easy. Nathan’s family made aliya from Johannesburg when he was eight years old, and he struggled to learn the language. Nathan still visits South Africa as often as possible to visit his grandmother in Sandringham Gardens. “I’m connected to the country, to the culture, to the Jewish community, and to my family in South Africa. As much as I am Israeli today, I’m always proud to say that I’m a South African Jew,” he said.

Nathan’s late mother was a teacher at King David Linksfield before they moved. Nathan said his mother taught her children, as well as her students, that “values come first”. In Israel, Naomi worked as a cleaner and organiser in a community shul. “We were in private education from the day we started in Israel. We were able to do that because she sacrificed having a cleaner in South Africa to become a cleaner in Israel.”

Naomi was tragically killed in a bus accident in Israel in 2022. Nathan still lives by his mother’s teachings. “She inspired me to be a better person, a better parent, and to have the right values. I’ve seen a lot of big pop stars send messages about money and other negative stuff to kids. My job is to send a different message, one of wanting to make the world a happier and better place,” he said.

Nathan said he struggled as an “outcast” at school, but found comfort in his passion for music. His parents couldn’t afford drumming lessons for him anymore, but he remained dedicated to music.

“I started beatboxing to remember all the beats, and I ended up winning a beatboxing competition,” he said. His love for music was passed through generations in his family. His father was a musician and a singer, and his grandfather was a stage performer.

Nathan, who is an observant Jew, wears a signature black hat when performing as DJ Raphi. Tired of listening to average, dull children’s music, he added beats “designed for Tomorrowland” to go with the original songs.

“Parents don’t mind putting on Spotify [where you can also find Nathan’s videos] while they drive, and even teens think it’s cool,” he said. Before Nathan puts any videos up, he shares it with his own young children to understand what they would find catchy.

Nathan explained why he believes his content appeals to such a large market. “Music is an international language that people connect to, and dancing connects people even more. The perfect example is if you travel to South America, and you don’t know the language, when you talk to someone to get directions, you are actually creating choreography with your hands to explain yourself and people immediately understand the universal language of movement,” he said.

On top of creating YouTube content, Nathan’s Premium Entertainment business provides DJs and dancers for weddings, Batmitzvahs, and Barmitzvahs in Israel and internationally. Nathan’s next step in the world of entertainment is to do “big shows and community events around the globe”.

He has also inadvertently stepped into the advocacy spotlight. He receives hateful comments on social media for being Jewish and Israeli, and says, “I have a team around me whose job is to fight back. We don’t delete comments because we believe in talking to people.”

As a South African Jew and Israeli, Nathan uses his unique background and perspective to shed a different light on Israel. “Coming from a country where there was apartheid and then living in Israel, you understand that it’s a place of light, peace, and freedom,” he said.